Photodynamic therapy (PDT) uses the combination of non-toxic dyes and harmless visible light to produce highly toxic reactive oxygen species that destroy tumors. The ideal cancer treatment should target both the primary tumor and the metastases with minimal toxicity. This is best accomplished by educating the body's immune system to recognize the tumor as foreign so that after the primary tumor is destroyed, distant metastases will also be eradicated. PDT may accomplish this feat and stimulate long-term, specific anti-tumor immunity. PDT causes an acute inflammatory response, the rapid induction of large amounts of necrotic and apoptotic tumor cells, induction of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPS) including heat-shock proteins, stimulates tumor antigen presentation to naïve T-cells, and generation of cytotoxic T-cells that can destroy distant tumor metastases.
By using various syngeneic mouse tumors in immunocompetent mice, we have studied specific PDT regimens related to tumor type as well as mouse genotype and phenotype. We have investigated the role of tumor-associated antigens in PDT-induced immune response by choosing mouse tumors that express: model defined antigen, naturally-occurring cancer testis antigen, and oncogenic virus-derived antigen.
We studied the synergistic combination of low-dose cyclophosphamide and PDT that unmasks the PDT-induced immune response by depleting the immunosuppressive T-regulatory cells. PDT combined with immunostimulants (toll-like receptor ligands) can synergistically maximize the generation of anti-tumor immunity by activating dendritic cells and switching immunosuppressive macrophages to a tumor rejection phenotype. Tumors expressing defined tumor-associated antigens with known MHC class I peptides allows anti-tumor immunity to be quantitatively compared.

Photodynamic therapy is a novel therapeutic modality to treat cancer by using a photosensitizer which is activated by a light source to produce reactive oxygen species and mediates tumours oxygen-independent hypoxic conditions. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the primary factors that affect tumor angiogenesis. Another emerging treatment to cure cancer is the use of interference RNA to silence a specific mRNA sequence. Such treatment requires a delivery system such as liposomes. The nanoparticle size measured was about 30 nm. Cellular uptake study was performed to verify that the nanoparticles have a sigma receptor mediated pathway. Non-targeted LCP NPs did not show significant difference with or without haloperidol but has a lower intensity as than targeted LCP NPs. These results confirm that LCP NPs have a receptor mediated pathway. Cell viability was found to decrease at 25 nM of transfected VEGF siRNA. Combined therapy of PDT and VEGF siRNA showed significant response as compared with PDT and gene therapy alone. In vivo toxicity assay with mice treated with targeted LCP NPs containing control siRNA or VEGF siRNA and non-targeted LCP NPs containing VEGF siRNA did not show any significant difference with the PBS injected group which suggests that there is no toxicity with the dose. It suggests that PDT combined with targeted gene therapy has a potential mean to achieve better therapeutic outcome.

5-Aminolevulinic acid mediated photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) is an established local approach for skin squamous cell carcinoma. It is believed that dangerous signals damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) play an important role in ALA-PDT. In this study, we evaluated in vitro and in vivo expressions of major DAMPs, calreticulin (CRT), heat shock proteins 70 (HSP70), and high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), induced by ALA-PDT using immunohistochemistry, western blot, and ELISA in a squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) mouse model. The role of DAMPs in the maturation of DCs potentiated by ALA-PDT-treated tumor cells was detected by FACS and ELISA. Our results showed that ALA-PDT enhanced the expression of CRT, HSP70, and HMGB1. These induced DAMPs played an important role in activating DCs by PDT-treated tumor cells, including phenotypic maturation (upregulation of surface expression of MHC-II, CD80, and CD86) and functional maturation (enhanced capability to secrete IFN-γ and IL-12). Furthermore, injecting ALA-PDT-treated tumor cells into naïve mice resulted in complete protection against cancer cells of the same origin. Our findings indicate that ALA-PDT can upregulate DAMPs and enhance tumor immunogenicity, providing a promising strategy for inducing a systemic anticancer immune response.

We constructed a multifunction nano system SWNT-GC and investigated the synergize photothermal and immunological effects. Here, we improve the SWNT-GC nano system and design a new synergistic nano-particle, both have the photothermal effects and immunological effects. We investigate the therapeutic effects and detect the immune response with metastatic mouse tumor models. We also study the therapeutic mechanism after treatment in vitro and in vivo. With the enhancement of nano-materials on photothermal effects, laser treatment could destroy primary tumor and protect normal tissue with low dose laser irradiation. With the immunological effects of nano-materials, the treatment could trigger specific antitumor immune response, to eliminate the metastasis tumor. It is providing a promising treatment modality for the metastatic cancers.

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) played a key role in the immune system to destroy the tumor cells. Although some mechanisms of CTLs killing the tumor cells are revealed already, the dynamic information of CTLs interaction with tumor cells are still not known very clearly. Here we used confocal microscopy to visualize the whole process of CTLs killing the tumor cells in vitro. The imaging data showed that CTLs destroyed the target tumor cells rapidly and efficiently. Several CTLs surrounded one or some tumor cells and the average time for CTLs destroying one tumor cell is just a few minutes in vitro. The study displayed the temporal events of CTLs interacting with tumor cells at the beginning and finally killing them and directly presented the efficient tumor cell cytotoxicity of the CTLs. The results helped us to deeply understand the mechanism of the CTLs destroying the tumor cells and to develop the cancer immunotherapy.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is widely used to modify many therapeutic proteins and nanoparticles to reduce their immunogenicity and to improve their pharmacokinetic and therapeutic properties. It is generally accepted that PEG is non-immunogenic and non-antigenic. However, an emerging of literature and studies shows that the immune system can generate specific antibodies binding PEG. These anti-PEG antibodies not only correlate with adverse reactions appeared after patient infusions, but are also found to be the reason for therapeutic efficacy loss during chronical administrations. In addition, because of constant exposure to PEG in daily consumer products including detergents, processed food and cosmetics, a substantial proportion of the population has likely developed anti-PEG immunity. Thus a method to quickly and accurately measure the anti-PEG antibody level is desired. Nevertheless, the gold standard to detect anti-PEG antibodies is ELISA, which is costly and time-consuming especially for quantification. Herein, we demonstrated the anti-PEG measurement in blood serum using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor. Several PEG-based surface functionalization on SPR sensor chip were studied in terms of protein resistance and the limit of detection (LOD) of anti-PEG. The quantitative detection can be achieved in less than 30 min with LOD comparable to ELISA. Furthermore, the IgG and IgM of anti-PEG can be differentiated by following the secondary antibody.

Non-invasive laser immunotherapy (NLIT) is a treatment method for metastatic cancer which combines noninvasive laser irradiation with immunologically modified nanostructures to ablate a primary tumor and induce a systemic anti-tumor response. To further expand the development of NLIT, two different photosensitizing agents were compared: gold nanorods (GNR) with an optical absorption peak of 808 nm and indocyanine green (ICG) with an optical absorption peak of ~800 nm. Various concentrations of GNR and ICG solutions were irradiated at different power densities using an 805 nm diode laser, and the temperature of the solutions was monitored during irradiation using a thermal camera. For comparison, dye balls made up of a 1:1 volume ratio of gel solution to GNR or ICG solution were placed in phantom gels and were then irradiated using the 805 nm diode laser to imitate the effect of laser irradiation on in vivo tumors. Non-invasive laser irradiation of GNR solution for 2 minutes resulted in a maximum increase in temperature by 31.8 °C. Additionally, similar irradiation of GNR solution dye ball within phantom gel for 10 minutes resulted in a maximum temperature increase of 8.2 °C. Comparatively, non-invasive laser irradiation of ICG solution for 2 minutes resulted in a maximum increase in temperature by 28.0 °C. Similar irradiation of ICG solution dye ball within phantom gel for 10 minutes yielded a maximum temperature increase of only 3.4 °C. Qualitatively, these studies showed that GNR solutions are more effective photosensitizing agents than ICG solution.

Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes. Melanoma cells have high light absorption due to melanin highly contained in melanoma cells. This property is employed for the detection of circulating melanoma cell by in vivo photoacoustic flow cytometry (PAFC), which is based on photoacoustic effect. Compared to in vivo flow cytometry based on fluorescence, PAFC can employ high melanin content of melanoma cells as endogenous biomarkers to detect circulating melanoma cells in vivo. We have developed in vitro experiments to prove the ability of PAFC system of detecting photoacoustic signals from melanoma cells. For in vivo experiments, we have constructed a model of melanoma tumor bearing mice by inoculating highly metastatic murine melanoma cancer cells, B16F10 with subcutaneous injection. PA signals are detected in the blood vessels of mouse ears in vivo. The raw signal detected from target cells often contains some noise caused by electronic devices, such as background noise and thermal noise. We choose the Wavelet denoising method to effectively distinguish the target signal from background noise. Processing in time domain and frequency domain would be combined to analyze the signal after denoising. This algorithm contains time domain filter and frequency transformation. The frequency spectrum image of the signal contains distinctive features that can be used to analyze the property of target cells or particles. The processing methods have a great potential for analyzing signals accurately and rapidly. By counting circulating melanoma cells termly, we obtain the number variation of circulating melanoma cells as melanoma metastasized. Those results show that PAFC is a noninvasive and label-free method to detect melanoma metastases in blood or lymph circulation.

The use of fluorescence imaging of vascular permeability becomes a golden standard for assessing the inflammation process during experimental immune response in vivo. The use of the optical fluorescence imaging provides a very useful and simple tool to reach this purpose. The motivation comes from the necessity of a robust and simple quantification and data presentation of inflammation based on a vascular permeability. Changes of the fluorescent intensity, as a function of time is a widely accepted method to assess the vascular permeability during inflammation related to the immune response. In the present study we propose to bring a new dimension by applying a more sophisticated approach to the analysis of vascular reaction by using a quantitative analysis based on methods derived from astronomical observations, in particular by using a space-time Fourier filtering analysis followed by a polynomial orthogonal modes decomposition. We demonstrate that temporal evolution of the fluorescent intensity observed at certain pixels correlates quantitatively to the blood flow circulation at normal conditions. The approach allows to determine the regions of permeability and monitor both the fast kinetics related to the contrast material distribution in the circulatory system and slow kinetics associated with extravasation of the contrast material. Thus, we introduce a simple and convenient method for fast quantitative visualization of the leakage related to the inflammatory (immune) reaction in vivo.

Flow cytometry is an important technique in biomedical discovery for cell counting, cell sorting and biomarker detection. In vivo flow cytometers, based on one-photon or two-photon excited fluorescence, have been developed for more than a decade. One drawback of laser beam scanning two-photon flow cytometer is that the two-photon excitation volume is fairly small due to the short Rayleigh range of a focused Gaussian beam. Hence, the sampling volume is much smaller than one-photon flow cytometry, which makes it challenging to count or detect rare circulating cells in vivo. Bessel beams have narrow intensity profiles with an effective spot size (FWHM) as small as several wavelengths, making them comparable to Gaussian beams. More significantly, the theoretical depth of field (propagation distance without diffraction) can be infinite, making it an ideal solution as a light source for scanning beam flow cytometry. The trade-off of using Bessel beams rather than a Gaussian beam is the fact that Bessel beams have small concentric side rings that contribute to background noise. Two-photon excitation can reduce this noise, as the excitation efficiency is proportional to intensity squared. Therefore, we developed a two-photon flow cytometer using scanned Bessel beams to form a light sheet that intersects the micro fluidic channel.

Neutrophils are immune cells that undergo chemotaxis, detecting and migrating towards a chemical signal gradient. Neutrophils actively migrate across epithelial boundaries, interacting with the epithelium to selectively permit passage without compromising the epithelial barrier. In many inflammatory disorders, excessive neutrophil migration can cause damage to the epithelium itself. The signaling pathways and mechanisms that facilitate trans-epithelial migration are not fully characterized. Our laboratory has developed micro-optical coherence tomography (μOCT), which has 2 μm lateral resolution and 1 μm axial resolution. As a high-resolution native contrast modality, μOCT can directly visualize individual neutrophils as they interact with a cell layer cultured on a transwell filter. A chemoattractant can be applied to the apical side of inverted monolayer, and human neutrophils placed in the basolateral compartment, while μOCT captures 3D images of the chemotaxis. μOCT images can also generate quantitative metrics of migration volume to study the dependence of chemotaxis on monolayer cell type, chemoattractant type, and disease state of the neutrophils. For example, a disease known as leukocyte adhesion deficiency (LAD) can be simulated by treating neutrophils with antibodies that interfere with the CD18 receptor, a facilitator of trans-epithelial migration. We conducted a migration study of anti-CD18 treated and control neutrophils using T84 intestinal epithelium as a barrier. After one hour, μOCT time-lapse imaging indicated a strong difference in the fraction of neutrophils that remain attached to the epithelium after migration (0.67 ± 0.12 attached anti-CD18 neutrophils, 0.23 ± 0.08 attached control neutrophils, n = 6, p < 0.05), as well as a modest but non-significant decrease in total migration volume for treated neutrophils. We can now integrate μOCT-derived migration metrics with simultaneously acquired measurements of transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), a measure of membrane integrity that decreases when neutrophils create openings in the epithelium to permit migration. Preliminary results (n = 2) using real-time TEER measurements indicate that TEER change in anti-CD18 migration (26% at 1 hour) is not lower compared to control (14% at 1 hour), suggesting that the neutrophil-epithelial interaction is not impaired. Combined µOCT+TEER will allow the relationship of neutrophil migration and epithelial interactions to be studied to help uncover the mechanisms of altered neutrophil behavior in patients with inflammatory and immune diseases.

Clinical trials of late-stage breast cancer patients and late-stage melanoma patients treated by laser immunotherapy (LIT) have shown promising results. In a 2010 study of Li et al, eleven late-stage melanoma patients received LIT in one or multiple 6-week treatment cycles applied to a 200-cm2 treatment site, which usually contained multiple cutaneous metastases. Long-term, positive response was observed in six patients. All lesions in the treatment area of the patients responded to LIT, eight of which achieved complete local response (CLR). CLR was observed in the non-treatment site (regional) lesions in four patients. Five patients were still alive at the time of last follow-up. The probability of 12-month overall survival was 70%.2 In 2011, Li et al, treated ten late stage breast cancer patients with LIT.1 In 8 patients available for evaluation, the objective response rate was 62.5% and the clinical beneficial response rate was 75%.1 This review demonstrates that LIT is safe and well tolerated, so it can be easily applied on an outpatient basis and can be combined with other pharmaceutical modalities to improve the therapeutic response of metastatic cancers.

A novel method, an in situ autologous whole-cell cancer vaccine (inCVAX), is being developed by Immunophotonics, Inc., for the treatment of metastatic cancers. inCVAX combines phototherapy and immunotherapy to potentially induce a systemic anti-tumor immune response in the hosts. Immunophotonics and its academic partners have spent years conducting nonclinical research, developing CMC techniques and conducting clinical research. In 2015 the company initiated a late-stage (II/III) clinical trial in South America for advanced breast cancer patients. The process of developing the inCVAX approach from a laboratory setting into clinical trials requires significant efforts from a group of dedicated engineers, scientists, and physicians. The growth of the company and its business advances demonstrated the determination of a group of visionary investors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. This talk will chronicle the milestones of the scientific achievement, medical progress, and business development of Immunophotonics.

Automated high throughput scanning microscopy is a fast developing screening technology used in cytogenetic laboratories for the diagnosis of leukemia or other genetic diseases. However, one of the major challenges of using this new technology is how to efficiently detect the analyzable metaphase chromosomes during the scanning process. The purpose of this investigation is to develop a computer aided detection (CAD) scheme based on deep learning technology, which can identify the metaphase chromosomes with high accuracy. The CAD scheme includes an eight layer neural network. The first six layers compose of an automatic feature extraction module, which has an architecture of three convolution-max-pooling layer pairs. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd pair contains 30, 20, 20 feature maps, respectively. The seventh and eighth layers compose of a multiple layer perception (MLP) based classifier, which is used to identify the analyzable metaphase chromosomes. The performance of new CAD scheme was assessed by receiver operation characteristic (ROC) method. A number of 150 regions of interest (ROIs) were selected to test the performance of our new CAD scheme. Each ROI contains either interphase cell or metaphase chromosomes. The results indicate that new scheme is able to achieve an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.886±0.043. This investigation demonstrates that applying a deep learning technique may enable to significantly improve the accuracy of the metaphase chromosome detection using a scanning microscopic imaging technology in the future.

Image guided drug delivery is a novel strategy that combines the effect of therapy and visibility into one system. Here we apply photoacoustic (PA) imaging to visualize the drug delivery process, and perform a simulation study on monitoring the photosensitizer concentration in a prostate tumor during photodynamic therapy (PDT). A 3D optical model of the human prostate is developed, and the light absorption distribution in the prostate is estimated by the Monte Carlo simulation method. The filtered back-projection algorithm is used to reconstruct PA images. PA images of transurethral laser/transrectal ultrasound are compared to those of transrectal laser/ultrasound. Results show that the transurethral laser has a better penetration depth in the prostate compared with transrectal one. Urethral thermal safety is investigated via COMSOL Multiphysics, and the results show that the proposed pulsed transurethral laser will cause no thermal damage on the urethral surface. Regression analysis for PA signal amplitude and drug concentration demonstrates that the PA technique has the potential to monitor drug distributions in PDT, as well as in other laser-based prostate therapy modalities.

The objective of this study was to characterize the operating parameters of an in-vivo micro CT system. In-plane spatial resolution, noise, geometric accuracy, CT number uniformity and linearity, and phase effects were evaluated using various phantoms. The system employs a flat panel detector with a 127 μm pixel pitch, and a micro focus x-ray tube with a focal spot size ranging from 5-30 μm. The system accommodates three magnification sets of 1.72, 2.54 and 5.10. The in-plane cutoff frequencies (10% MTF) ranged from 2.31 lp/mm (60 mm FOV, M=1.72, 2×2 binning) to 13 lp/mm (10 mm FOV, M=5.10, 1×1 binning). The results were qualitatively validated by a resolution bar pattern phantom and the smallest visible lines were in 30-40 μm range. Noise power spectrum (NPS) curves revealed that the noise peaks exponentially increased as the geometric magnification (M) increased. True in-plane pixel spacing and slice thickness were within 2% of the system’s specifications. The CT numbers in cone beam modality are greatly affected by scattering and thus they do not remain the same in the three magnifications. A high linear relationship (R2 > 0.999) was found between the measured CT numbers and Hydroxyapatite (HA) loadings of the rods of a water filled mouse phantom. Projection images of a laser cut acrylic edge acquired at a small focal spot size of 5 μm with 1.5 fps revealed that noticeable phase effects occur at M=5.10 in the form of overshooting at the boundary of air and acrylic. In order to make the CT numbers consistent across all the scan settings, scatter correction methods may be a valuable improvement for this system.

Laser Immunotherapy is a novel cancer treatment modality that has seen much success in treating many different types of cancer, both in animal studies and in clinical trials. The treatment consists of the synergistic interaction between photothermal laser irradiation and the local injection of an immunoadjuvant. As a result of the therapy, the host immune system launches a systemic antitumor response. The photothermal effect induced by the laser irradiation has multiple effects at different temperature elevations which are all required for optimal response. Therefore, determining the temperature distribution in the target tumor during the laser irradiation in laser immunotherapy is crucial to facilitate the treatment of cancers. To investigate the temperature distribution in the target tumor, female Wistar Furth rats were injected with metastatic mammary tumor cells and, upon sufficient tumor growth, underwent laser irradiation and were monitored using thermocouples connected to locally-inserted needle probes and infrared thermography. From the study, we determined that the maximum central tumor temperature was higher for tumors of less volume. Additionally, we determined that the temperature near the edge of the tumor as measured with a thermocouple had a strong correlation with the maximum temperature value in the infrared camera measurement.

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is a promising spectroscopic technique to characterize imaging contrast agents with high atomic numbers (Z) such as gold nanoparticles (GNPs) inside small objects. Its utilization for biomedical applications, however, is greatly limited to experimental research due to longer data acquisition time. The objectives of this study are to apply a photon counting detector array for XRF imaging and to determine an optimized XRF data acquisition time, at which the acquired XRF image is of acceptable quality to allow the maximum level of radiation dose reduction. A prototype laboratory XRF imaging configuration consisting of a pencil-beam X-ray and a photon counting detector array (1 × 64 pixels) is employed to acquire the XRF image through exciting the prepared GNP/water solutions. In order to analyze the signal to noise ratio (SNR) improvement versus the increased exposure time, all the XRF photons within the energy range of 63 - 76KeV that include two Kα gold fluorescence peaks are collected for 1s, 2s, 3s, and so on all the way up to 200s. The optimized XRF data acquisition time for imaging different GNP solutions is determined as the moment when the acquired XRF image just reaches a quality with a SNR of 20dB which corresponds to an acceptable image quality.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an extensive neurodegenerative disease. It is generally believed that there are some connections between AD and amyloid protein plaques in the brain. AD is a chronic disease that usually starts slowly and gets worse over time. The typical symptoms are memory loss, language disorders, mood swings and behavioral issues. Gradual losses of somatic functions eventually lead patients to death. Currently, the main therapeutic method is pharmacotherapy, which may temporarily reduce symptoms, but has many side effects. No current treatment can reverse AD's deterioration.

Infrared (IR) light therapy has been studied in a range of single and multiple irradiation protocols in previous studies and was found beneficial for neuropathology. In our research, we have verified the effect of infrared light on AD through Alzheimer's disease mouse model. This transgenic mouse model is made by co-injecting two vectors encoding mutant amyloid precursor protein (APP) and mutant presenilin-1 (PSEN1). We designed an experimental apparatus for treating mice, which primarily includes a therapeutic box and a LED array, which emits infrared light. After the treatment, we assessed the effects of infrared light by testing cognitive performance of the mice in Morris water maze.

Our results show that infra-red therapy is able to improve cognitive performance in the mouse model. It might provide a novel and safe way to treat Alzheimer's disease.

Breast cancer is increasing with years in Taiwan because of dietary style, life behavior and several social-physiological factors. According to the record of Bureau of Health Promotion in Taiwan, the incidence of breast cancer is top one, and the mortality of that is top one cancer type in women. Compared with USA, most of breast cancer cases found in Taiwanese women have reached to stage 2 or 3. Current therapeutic strategies for breast cancer include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and targeted therapy. However, these methods used for curing the late-stage breast cancer remains rare. Because the metastasis is the major problem of late-stage breast cancer, it is of interest to investigate whether a systemic therapy can reduce the symptoms of cancer. The immunotherapy, particularly an induction of autoimmune system, is probably important for the treatment of late-stage breast cancer.

Glycated chitosan (GC) is derived from chitosan, a linear polysaccharide composed of D-glucosamine and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine through β–(1-4) linkage. Several lines of evidence have shown that GC is an immunoadjuvant that can target on primary and metastatic tumors formed in animal and human patients. In our previous data, GC was demonstrated to decrease the motility and invasion of mammalian breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is dependent on a small generator that delivers high frequency alternating electric current directly to burn a tumor lesion. Therefore, the temperature may reach up to above 60 °C. In this study, we used 4T1 mouse breast cancer cell that is the approximately equal to stage 4 of human breast cancer. And triple modality reporter gene (3R) was delivered into the cells using transfected piggyBac, a transposable element for observation of tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. Data showed that growth and metastasis of tumors smaller than 500mm3 were entirely suppressed by RFA-GC combination treatment. Plasma extraction from this group displayed an inhibitory effect on cultured 4T1 cells, suggesting some immunoreactions were triggered and therefore secreted some cytokines. Protein array data indicated that PF-4 may play a key role in GC-RFA caused tumor suppression but the further effects should be investigated. On the other hand, the survival rate of small tumor-bearing mice under RFA-GC treatment was higher than those of GC or RFA treatment only.

In conclusion, this study confirmed that radiofrequency ablation combined with GC could trigger an autoimmune response to inhibit tumor metastasis and tumorigenesis. For metastatic cancers, this combination treatment may become the foundation for a feasible cancer treatment modality.

Breast cancer is one of the most harmful cancers in human. Its early diagnosis is expected to improve the patients’ survival rate. X-ray computed tomography (CT) has been widely used in tumor detection for obtaining three-dimentional information. Fluorescence Molecular Tomography (FMT) imaging combined with near-infrared fluorescent dyes provides a powerful tool for the acquisition of molecular biodistribution information in deep tissues. Thus, the combination of CT and FMT imaging modalities allows us to better differentiate diseased tissues from normal tissues. Here we developed a tumor-targeting nanoparticle for dual-modality imaging based on a biocompatible HDL-mimicking peptide-phospholipid scaffold (HPPS) nanocarrier. By incorporation of CT contrast agents (iodinated oil) and far-infrared fluorescent dyes (DiR-BOA) into the hydrophobic core of HPPS, we obtained the FMT and CT signals simultaneously. Increased accumulation of the nanoparticles in the tumor lesions was achieved through the effect of the tumor-targeting peptide on the surface of nanoparticle. It resulted in excellent contrast between lesions and normal tissues. Together, the abilities to sensitively separate the lesions from adjacent normal tissues with the aid of a FMT/CT dual-model imaging approach make the targeting nanoparticles a useful tool for the diagnostics of breast cancer.

The knowledge of manipulating size of biomaterials encapsulated drug into nano-scale particles has been researched and developed in treating cancer. Cancer is the second worldwide cause of death, therefore it is critical to treat cancers challenging with therapeutic modality of various mechanisms. Our preliminary investigation has studied cisplatin encapsulated into lipid-based nanoparticle and examined the therapeutic effect on xenografted animal model. We used mice with tumor volume ranging from 195 to 214 mm3 and then few mice were grouped into three groups including: control (PBS), lipid platinum chloride (LPC) nanoparticles and CDDP (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) at dose of 3mg cisplatin /kg body weight. The effect of the treatment was observed for 12 days post-injection. It showed that LPC NPs demonstrated a better therapeutic effect compared to CDDP at same 3mg cisplatin/kg drug dose of tumor size reduction, 96.6% and 11.1% respectively. In addition, mouse body weight loss of LPC, CDDP and PBS treated group are 12.1%, 24.3% and 1.4%. It means that by compared to CDDP group, LPC group demonstrated less side effect as not much reduction of body weight have found. Our findings have shown to be a potential modality to further investigate as a feasible cancer therapy modality.

Currently there is a situation that makes it difficult to provide the population with quality drinking water for the sanitary-hygienic requirements. One of the urgent problems is the need for water disinfection. Since the emergence of microorganisms that are pathogens transmitted through water such as typhoid, cholera, etc. requires constant cleansing of waters against pathogenic bacteria. In the water treatment process is destroyed up to 98% of germs, but among the remaining can be pathogenic viruses, the destruction of which requires special handling. As a result, the conducted research the following methods have been proposed for combating harmful microorganisms: sterilization of water by laser radiation and using a UV lamp.

The wide application of nanotechnologies in medicine requires the careful study of various aspects of their potential safety. The effects of prolonged peroral administration of gold nanoparticles on morphological changes in lymphoid organs and indicators of peripheral blood of laboratory animals were investigated in experiment. The gold nanospheres functionalized with thiolated polyethylene glycol sizes 2, 15 and 50 nm were administered orally for 15 days to outbred white rats at a dosage of 190 μg/kg of animal body weight. The standard histological and hematological staining were used for morphological study of lymphoid organs and bone marrow smears. The size-dependent decrease of the number of neutrophils and lymphocytes was noted in the study of peripheral blood, especially pronounced after administration of gold nanoparticles with size of 50 nm. The stimulation of myelocytic germ of hematopoiesis was recorded at morphological study of the bone marrow. The signs of strengthening of the processes of differentiation and maturation of cellular elements were found in lymph nodes, which were showed as the increasing number of immunoblasts and large lymphocytes. The quantitative changes of cellular component morphology of lymphoid organs due to activation of migration, proliferation and differentiation of immune cells indicate the presence of immunostimulation effect of gold nanoparticles.

Laser immunotherapy (LIT) uses laser irradiation and immunological stimulation to target all types of metastases and creates a long-term tumor resistance. Glycated chitosan (GC) is the immunological stimulant used in LIT. Interestingly, GC can act as a surfactant for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) to immunologically modify SWNTs. SWNT-GC retains the optical properties of SWNTs and the immunological functions of GC to help increase the selectivity of the laser and create a more optimal immune response. One essential aspect of understanding this immune response is knowing how laser irradiation affects cancer cells’ ability to metastasize. In this experiment, a cell migration assay was performed. A 2mm circular elastomer plugs were placed at the bottom of multi-well dishes. Pre-cancerous keratinocytes, different tumor cells, and fibroblasts were then plated separately in treated wells. Once the cells reached 100% confluence, they were irradiated by either a 980nm or 805nm wavelength laser. The goal was to determine the effects of laser irradiation and immunological stimulation on cancer cell migration in vitro, paying the way to understand the mechanism of LIT in treating metastatic tumors in cancer patients.

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Journal of Applied Remote SensingJournal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and SystemsJournal of Biomedical OpticsJournal of Electronic ImagingJournal of Medical ImagingJournal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMSJournal of NanophotonicsJournal of Photonics for EnergyNeurophotonicsOptical EngineeringSPIE Reviews